We are coming to the close of the year, and what a year it has been in the world of social media. From Facebook algorithm changes to who is buying whom and who is denying being bought by whom, it was hard to keep up.

And, as we social media "mavens", "gurus" and "hotshots" collectively realize that recapping the end of a tumultuous year might be really complicated and too long for a blog post, let alone a tweet, that leaves us only one thing to do: make predictions for next year!

But in reading other bloggers’ predictions it has come to my attention that almost every single post, column or article is missing the largest change that WILL (yes, it definitely will happen) in 2015.

These predictions talk about Google+ dying (that’s going out on a limb!) and big data becoming a bigger player (ooh, risky!). Or, they talk about the growing importance of video content (No way! Video will be huge?!?!) Seriously, though, who guesses that? That isn't a prediction. That is like looking around and saying, "Yep, tomorrow will definitely follow today."

So, being the brave blogging soul I am making a REAL prediction for what will disrupt the 2015 social landscape…

BUY BUTTONS!

Everyone has seemingly forgotten that ultimately, the way any social outlet can make money is if provide a conduit for their users to buy things.

Why will buy buttons invade social media in 2015?

1. Hello, Monetary Value. Or As They Call It Old Media, ROI

Those of us who have been playing in the field of social media since its existence know you can measure ROI with the success of campaigns. Various automation platforms have helped bridge the gap of “engagement = money”, and some finagling of spreadsheets and analytics leads to an accurate ROI of social media posts and content.

However, the buy buttons will allow social media managers to actually look at a post, a single post, and say, "This post yielded $400 worth of sales of X number of products."

2. Forcing Adoption of Social Ads

Since Facebook and Twitter are hobbling their algorithms to limit "organic" reach for businesses, social ads will be the only way most companies will be able to reach prospective buyers of goods and services. And their reward for complying with this change, they get to sell stuff, right there, in the ad.